County to refund tax bills

Mistake in assessor's office will mean owners of 342 properties will be getting checks in the mail.

Posted: Friday, January 14, 2005

Some Chatham County property owners, who may not even realize they overpaid their taxes last year, will be getting refund checks.

The County Commission on Friday authorized refunds for owners of 342 properties that were over-valued last year due to a mistake in the tax assessors office.

Altogether, the taxpayers paid roughly $18,000 more in state and local taxes that will now be redistributed back to them.

Another 800 property owners who underpaid a total of $76,000 in state and local taxes will get a break because of the legal challenges the county could invite by re-billing them after the 2004 tax year has officially ended. Chatham County's portion of that is $24,000.

The 1,200 property values were corrected in September, after assessors realized they had not completed the data entry for certain neighborhoods.

Tax Commissioner Danny Powers on Friday called it a "comedy of errors" in the assessors office that he, as the tax collector, is forced to resolve.

Board of Assessors Chairman Joe Vestal, however, said admitting the mistake, no matter how late in the tax process, was the right thing to do.

"We could have brushed this under the table and put those values out next year. We didn't," he said. "We take our crazy aunt out of the basement and put her on the front porch.

"We're a completely open office and have tried to be fair to everybody."